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NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge #141 - "Irretrievable"

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M

Mike M

Nick N
Theme - "Irretrievable"

Not able to be retrieved or put right.

Word Limit: 2000

Submission Deadline: Saturday, April 19th by 11:59 PM Pacific.

Voting begins Sunday, April 6th, and goes until Tuesday, April 22nd at 11:59 PM Pacific.

Note the changes in the times. While moving the times to 11:59 AM has been beneficial to some, it has also made tallying up the votes in the middle of the day kind of difficult. So rather than go back all the way to the original times, I'm splitting the difference and giving people a full weekend day to get stuff done. We'll see how that works out, the winner of this challenge is free to go back to the previous time scheme, or even the one before that.

Optional Secondary Objective: Perversion of an ideal

The alteration of something from its original course, meaning, or state to a distortion or corruption of what was first intended.

Take something good. Make it bad.
Take something bad. Make it good.

Submission Guidelines:

- One entry per poster.
- All submissions must be written during the time of the challenge.
- Using the topic as the title of your piece is discouraged.
- Keep to the word count!

Voting Guidelines:

- Three votes per voter. Please denote in your voting your 1st (3 pts), 2nd (2 pts), and 3rd (1 pt) place votes.
- Please read all submissions before voting.
- You must vote in order to be eligible to win the challenge.
- When voting ends, the winner gets a collective pat on the back, and starts the new challenge.

NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge FAQ
Previous Challenge Threads and Themes

---

And the nominees are:

Ourobolus -- That's Probably How He Found Out
Aaron -- That Unforgettable Inedible
lastflowers -- A Twenty Year old Ragged Teddy Bear
Mike M -- The Gap
Ward -- Sometimes Busting a Myth Should be Handled by Professionals, Other Times It's Kind of Fun
Ashes -- god folk
Tangent -- Bound
Bootaaay -- Speranza
John Dunbar -- Daring to Dream
kaepernickehs -- Irretreivable
Cyan -- Death by a Thousand Cuts
Nezumi -- Words of Silence
GRW810 -- Beyond Reach
 
C

Carlisle

Member
Congrats Mike!

We seemed to get in a couple first-timers last round, hopefully they keep it up and give this round a go as well.
 
T

Tangent

Member
Congrats Mike M!

And OH-EM-GEE. I'm so flattered that people thought that I wrote "Nameless" in the last challenge.
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
Cyan said:
Mike, you are incorrigible.
Click to expand...
UF1mhCa.gif


"Irretrievable" doesn't even move the needle on my Big-Word-O-Meter!

"Incorrigible," on the other hand...
 
C

Cyan

Banned
1. Cyan
2. Cyan
3. Cyan


Look, I'm just really confident I'm going to like my own story this time around.
 
T

Tangent

Member
Carlisle said:
That title screams Cyan.
Click to expand...

Wait, how?

toddhunter said:
1. John Dunbar
2. Tangent
3. Cyan

HM. Mike M
Click to expand...
Holy macaroni. I can't believe I preemptively made the top 3 list. This is waaaaaay more exciting than actually making the top 3 list.

Hey, what do you guys think of some way so that crits/feedback/votes are only given to a select few? I think we can all agree that feedback is super helpful, and not just votes. And I think we all feel like our weekends or Mondays are sucked up by reading a gazillion stories. What if each submitter were only assigned to, say, 3 - 4 stories max? The people you read keep changing, too. I'm not sure how votes would work out though... But, I just wanted to throw out the idea in case anyone can sharpen it.
 
T

toddhunter

Member
Tangent said:
Wait, how?


Holy macaroni. I can't believe I preemptively made the top 3 list. This is waaaaaay more exciting than actually making the top 3 list.
Click to expand...

I'd like to think those votes will remain as is by the end. See it as a challenge being thrown down.

Tangent said:
Hey, what do you guys think of some way so that crits/feedback/votes are only given to a select few? I think we can all agree that feedback is super helpful, and not just votes. And I think we all feel like our weekends or Mondays are sucked up by reading a gazillion stories. What if each submitter were only assigned to, say, 3 - 4 stories max? The people you read keep changing, too. I'm not sure how votes would work out though... But, I just wanted to throw out the idea in case anyone can sharpen it.
Click to expand...

I don't contribute as often as I would like, but I agree with the idea given how much time it takes (almost a disincentive to enter). How about if you are given three stories each at the end (or whatever works out equally) and then have to rank those stories alone? This would help everybody read and provide feedback and would also help spread out the votes a little.
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
Tangent said:
Hey, what do you guys think of some way so that crits/feedback/votes are only given to a select few? I think we can all agree that feedback is super helpful, and not just votes. And I think we all feel like our weekends or Mondays are sucked up by reading a gazillion stories. What if each submitter were only assigned to, say, 3 - 4 stories max? The people you read keep changing, too. I'm not sure how votes would work out though... But, I just wanted to throw out the idea in case anyone can sharpen it.
Click to expand...
Ehhhh... I don't see the need to reinvent the wheel quite that much. If people don't have time, they don't have time. It's unfortunate, but assigning stories and whatnot just seems too complicated.
 
G

GRW810

Member
I'm not a fan of dividing up stories either. Too complicated.

I'm more in favour of making challenges monthly, with a week to vote and critiques and feedback encouraged and expected by all. It's great that people read stories and vote but getting a dozen voices of feedback as opposed to three would be helpful to writers.

I think the monthly idea has been brought up and shot down before but if there is to be a change in response to increasing submissions and limited reading time, it's the obvious way.
 
O

Ourobolus

Banned
Gonna try to make mine relatively short this time. Heading out on a trip from Saturday->Saturday next week so I'll have to submit mine by tomorrow.
At least I think I have a decent idea.
 
C

Carlisle

Member
I have no ideas at all. Not a fault of the prompt, just nothing coming to me that doesn't feel really cliche, or is interesting enough to spend time on it.
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
So I've got an idea, but would you guys hate me forever if I wrote about a bunch of self-destructive firefighters?
 
K

kehs

Banned
This has nothing to do with me or probably never will, but I was thinking about the secondary challenge.

What do you guys think about allowing the second place winner to decide what it should be? I know there's more logistics involved, but I think I'd be a nice secondary prize type scenario.

P.S. It took me four days to find this thread.
 
A

Ashes

Banned
We have three days to read. Ten stories averaging 1500 words gives us 15,000 words. So I'd say about 5,000 words a day if you want to do this right. Or about 3 and a bit stories.
 
N

Nezumi

Member
Finally got an idea for this one. Hopefully I'll find the time to write it. Life is somewhat keeping me busy at the moment.
 
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